I decided to read The Snowman by Jo Nesbø (2007) after I realised the film adaptation was about to come out and it would be perfect for a dark, rainy Saturday evening. Two things happened that will surprise no bookworm: Everyone told me the film was horribly made (apparently something to do with reshootings), and I loved the book. Since I am having some serious trouble finding space for new books and I am an avid public library user I borrowed the Spanish translation from my public library with the blessing of the librarian, who has known me since I was 3. She said I would love it, and as…

I was sent a review copy of Erik Axl Sund’s The Crow Girl upon its paperback release in the UK. I had previously heard about the novel because everyone whose taste in books I trusted was reading, and loving it. I also saw another delegate at Captivating Criminality 4 Conference reading it, and the bookish nosy that I am made me disturb his reading to ask for the book. He was loving it too. So, with all positive recommendations coming my way, I had no doubts that The Crow Girl – with its dark and twisted plot masterfully translated from the original Swedish by Neil Smith – was one of…

The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn was one of the most acclaimed crime fiction released of last year. Every critic, blogger, and crime fiction fan that I knew and followed on Twitter seemed to be reading this book, so I kindly requested a review copy to Orenda Books and I got it. It has taken me more than a year to get to read this jewel, but it was completely worth it. The Bird Tribunal was the winner of the English Pen Award and its English translation comes ten years after its debut in Norway. Exquisitely translated by Rosie Hedger, this Nordic Noir hit is the perfect fall and winter…

I was contacted by MacMillan last month to get to know their latest translated author, Steinar Bragi whose novel The Icelands came out on the 25th October. Even though I do not read much Scandi crime fiction, I enjoy it a lot when I finally step out of my British/American comfort zone. So, after taking a look at the book I decided it was dark enough to make it to my Halloween reading list. But I did not know what I had in my hands… The Icelands – Hálendið in the original Icelandic, published in 2011 and translated into English by Lorenz Garcia – tells the story of two couples,…

After quite a disappointed reading experience with Camilla Läckberg’s Erika Flack’s series I somehow thought Åsa Larsson’s books were similar and decided not to try them for a while. Also, some comments I read online about Larsson were not very positive, which did not help. However, Larsson herself published a very interesting article on dead women in crime fiction. It was such a good piece that I knew I had to read her detective fiction series. So, in mid-September I bought the first in the Rebecka Martinsson series and it was the perfect back-to-school reading. From Goodreads: On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man…

I first read about Linda, as in the Linda Murder by Leif G.W Persson at Crime Pieces, where Sarah Ward wrote a very interesting review of this newly translated Scandinavian novel from 2005. So, I contacted the publishers and they kindly sent me a review copy. Huge thank you to Transworld, yet again! From Goodreads: In the middle of an unusually hot Swedish summer, a young woman studying at the Vaxjo Police Academy is brutally murdered. Police Inspector Evert Backstrom is unwillingly drafted in from Stockholm to head up the investigation. Egotistical, vain and utterly prejudiced against everything, Backstropm is a man who has no sense of duty or responsibility,…

I encountered Chilled to the Bone by Quentin Bates at the “What’s New?” section at Book Depository. I loved the description so much that I asked the publishers for a review copy and they kindly sent me one. The book got a little bit lost on my TBR pile until last week, when I thought I really needed some Scandinavian crime fiction to get me through finals month. It did help. From Goodreads: When a shipowner is found dead, tied to a bed in one of Reykjavik’s smartest hotels, sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir of the city police force sees no evidence of foul play but still suspects things are not as…

I am always recommending and lending books, so this time it was my turn to borrow one! My lovely professor gave me The Unlucky Lottery by Håkan Nesser a few months ago after talking about how claustrophobic and catching Scandinavian crime fiction is. From Goodreads: Four friends celebrate the fact that they have won the lottery. Just hours later, one of them – Waldemar Leverkuhn – is found in his home, stabbed to death. With Chief Inspector Van Veeteren on sabbatical working in a second hand bookshop, the case is assigned to Inspector Munster. But when another member of the lottery group disappears, as well as Leverkuhn’s neighbor, Munster appeals to…

The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second installment in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. I read the first one – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – last summer and my lovely parents bought me the second book for Christmas. I haven’t read it until now being aware of how much I was going to love it and how addictive Larsson’s prose is. From Goodreads: Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. But he has no…

As a fan of crime fiction and thrillers, I had been hearing about Camilla Läckberg for a long, long time. Commuting in the train way back home, I always saw someone reading her books and they all seemed to be enjoying them. So, I decided to give Läckberg a try. I started with the first on her Falck-Hedstrom installment, The Ice Princess. From The Book Depository: In this electrifying tale of suspense from an international crime-writing sensation, a grisly death exposes the dark heart of a Scandinavian seaside village. Erica Falck returns to her tiny, remote hometown of Fjallbacka, Sweden, after her parents’ deaths only to encounter another tragedy: the…